Bet he doesn’t look at Travis’s lips like that.
I pushed away from my desk and stretched. Spending so much time hunched over, writing emails or making phone calls, couldn’t be good for the human body. Maybe I’d walk up to the nearby college campus and get some takeout for lunch. It was a short stroll, and between campus police and the general buzz of people, the biggest danger was the heat.
If Jackson found out, he’d blow a gasket, but what he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him.
A quick peek into the front office revealed Maya at her desk, hard at work. She’d asked how I was this morning, and I could see a deeper question lurking in her eyes about Friday night, but she hadn’t brought it up directly.
“Maya,” I called out.
She startled at my voice, then shot me a smile.
“Look, I’m sorry about the other night. I didn’t mean to nearly get us stranded but, uh, something came up…”
After a searching look, she said, “You ran into someone you wanted to avoid. You don’t have to explain that to me.” Something flickered behind her usually bright smile.
I blinked at the easy acceptance. I’d expected her to dig—after all, I was the one who had talked her out of driving. If Ihadn’t done that, we’d have been able to get home, no problem. “Thanks. Are you ordering anything for lunch? If you haven’t, I can grab you something while I’m out.”
“No, I brought my lunch today.”
“Ah, well, that’s probably better tasting, but we don’t all have that kind of time,” I said with a self-deprecating smile. Maya was the best receptionist we’d ever had—way better than we deserved—and she still managed to cook for herself, and she always had a smile on her face. I was a little jealous that she seemed to have her shit so together.
“I’m going to walk up to campus for lunch. If I’m not back in forty-five minutes, send an ambulance. I’ve probably died of heatstroke.”
“You can get delivery.”
I made a face. “No, I need some sunshine.”
I made it two blocks before Mom popped out of the tree cover to my right and joined me on the sidewalk. She looked a little worse for wear, in the same clothes she’d been wearing on Saturday, but they didn’t look like they’d been washed since. Her hair was greasy, and some new sores had popped up on her chin. Or maybe she’d been wearing heavier makeup the last two times I saw her.
“You can’t be here,” I said, drawing my purse closer.
“I know we left things in a bad place the other day, but I thought we could talk it out.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“I told you, I’m getting old, and I’ve been rethinking a lot.” She let out a sigh, her entire body folding in on itself. “I’m trying.”
“Are you high right now?” I asked quietly.
She lifted one shoulder.
Well, she hadn’t flat-out lied to me, or gotten defensive. That was better than last time. Maybe she had something to say. “Fine. Talk.”
“It’s just, it wasn’t right, what your daddy did, cutting me out of inheriting my own home. And I’m in a…bad way. Twenty grand would help me get on the straight and narrow and make things right.”
I had no doubt that if Mom had inherited the house when Dad died, she’d have sold it and blown all the cash, leaving me and Travis with nothing.
Would she still? Was it really about the house, or was that just an angle? “You have to know I can’t come up with that kind of money. And without some evidence, I can’t trust your word after eight years of silence.”
“Eight years—oh, fuck you.” She spat on the sidewalk. “Paying me off has never been a problem before. If you and Travis can’t get it all together, ask your buddy Jackson for the rest.”
“Excuse me?” Why on earth did she think Jackson would loan me twenty grand?
“Youoweme,” she snapped.
“Owe you? Owe you for what, exactly?” I picked up my pace, wondering if pressing one of those blue buttons that summoned campus police would be overkill. We were only a block from the first one.
“If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t even be here!”
